Peel of Print 4

Peel of Print 4 marks a midpoint in the series and shows Abe testing how much surface can be removed before the print's image-function dissolves. Mixed-media construction allows ink, paste, and fibrous additions to occupy the same sheet, each responding differently to peeling. Where intact ink layers persist, they read as image; where the substrate is exposed, the paper itself becomes the image. This oscillation between figure and ground without recourse to representation is consistent with Abe's contemporary practice, distinct from traditional [ukiyo-e](/glossary/ukiyo-e) modes such as [bijin-ga](/glossary/bijin-ga) or [meisho-e](/glossary/meisho-e) and aligned instead with the conceptual print tradition fostered in Japan's print-teaching institutions. The print extends the procedural inquiry that began with Peel of Print 1 and prepares the ground for the more reductive operations that follow in the second half of the series. Joshibi University's combined oil painting and printmaking pedagogy is visible in the way the work treats the print as a painterly, additive surface that can also be subtractive.